226 SEAL NETS. 



appear to toss and rock about so frightfully to one not acquainted 

 with their use, whole families of Indians, often comprising three men, 

 two women, and several small children, will go from island to island 

 or harbor to harbor miles apart, in most squally weather ; when 

 thus moving about they carry their luggage with them. What, then, 

 would be the surprise to see, as is often the case, a canoe literally 

 and absolutely loaded to within three to five inches of the top with 

 a family moving, in fine weather, to some location miles farther up 

 or down the coast. In a number of years there has come but a 

 single instance, that I can recall, when a load of this kind has been 

 swamped and any of the family have perished. 



It, of course, takes some time for any one to become an adept 

 in the use of these canoes, and though I finally purchased a good 

 second-hand one, I made little use of it save to paddle about 

 around the islands where we were staying, and over to the nearest 

 island beyond, where neighbors resided, a distance of perhaps a 

 quarter of a mile from point to point ; but it was most excellent 

 exercise, and I enjoyed it heartily. The price here of a new canoe 

 that will hold say four people and their baggage, and eighty odd 

 pounds, is somewhere in the region of from ^'] to JP^Z of New- 

 foundland money, or, being four dollars to a pound, some twenty- 

 eight dollars, varying two or three dollars either way. There are 

 generally but one or two Indians in a tribe that can make a first- 

 class canoe, and these have their hands full the greater part of the 

 time. 



In the evening we lashed the canoe that I had purchased to our 

 komatik and started for home. 



The next two or three days were spent in netting a net with 

 which to capture seals. A seal net is an immense affair made of 

 stout salmon twine, and netted in meshes usually about six inches 

 from knot to knot, the best size being apparently twenty-seven 

 meshes wide, with a length of about forty-five fathoms, or about 

 two hundred and sixty feet. The process of netting is one that 

 cannot well be described. The needle that holds the twine is of 

 peculiar make. The meshes are made by doubling the thread over 



